Citizen steers police to North Side teen in purse robbery

YOUNGSTOWN — Police said a Boardman woman was robbed at gunpoint and her husband was shot at by the gunman as he fled the scene with her purse.

The couple were at a thrift shop at the corner of Market Street and Judson Avenue, near Midlothian Boulevard, around 1:35 p.m. Saturday when the woman went out to her car parked on the Judson Avenue side of the building. She told police that, as she approached her car, a man grabbed her purse, spun her around and then brandished a handgun, threatening to shoot her if she didn’t give up the purse.

She complied and the man ran across Market Street onto East Judson Avenue, she said.

Police said she screamed and her husband came out the store and began chasing the man but stopped when the robber turned, and fired a shot in his direction.

Police said a concerned citizen saw the robber run in the back door of a vacant house at 36 E. Judson St., and officers surrounded the structure. They said they nabbed the man, later identified as Terrian L. Christian, 19, of Upland Avenue on the city’s North Side, as he tried to crawl out a basement window.

The victims and a witness identified Christian as the robber, police said, and officers found clothing matching that worn by the robber as well as a gun holster in a second-floor room of the Judson Avenue house. No gun was recovered, but the victim’s purse was found intact in a garage next to the house, police said.

Christian was charged with aggravated robbery and felonious assault and lodged in Mahoning County jail to await arraignment.